From Rappler:

The Filipino-American stunt choreographer shares his experience in training the lead stars of ‘The Batman’ for their elaborate fight scenes

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Aside from being a trainer, Alonzo is also responsible for the other physical demands involved in the massive action sequences of the film. He is also a second unit director, which means he is responsible for shooting the supplemental footage that complements the original footage, like major shots involving stunts and transitions.

In an interview with Warner Bros., Pattinson, who stars as Bruce Wayne in the DC film, said he was completely prepared for the fight scenes because of the weeks of preparation with Alonzo. 

“Rob [Alonzo] has a great style. You learn certain signature moves, which you can build into different patterns really quickly,” said Pattinson.

Kravitz, who has worked with Alonzo for most of her life, said that he and his team are incredible people.

“He (Alonzo) was really concerned about everything feeling grounded and being motivated by emotion, and that’s really great,” said Kravitz, who stars as Selina Kyle in the movie.

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How did you design the action to execute Matt Reeves’ vision?

Matt’s vision was to have the action raw and real so that the audience feels every punch, kick, fall, hit, and crash through the emotion of the characters, whether they are enduring extreme amounts of pain or experiencing pleasure and satisfaction while doling it out. With that, I studied each character and their respective journeys throughout the story so that we can design movement based not only on their physical attributes, but also on the emotional state for each specific moment. Every move had an objective and we strayed away from inefficient action that was “action for the sake of action.”

By taking into account each of the varying character personalities, it helped me design distinct styles of action per character for their fighting, driving/riding, and improvisational adaptability to the moment as well as the environment. This way, Batman’s objective can remain clearly distinct from the objectives of Catwoman, Penguin, and the Riddler. This meant that I also had to train the cast in their respective styles of fighting. For example, the goal of fight training with Rob Pattinson was to allow the jeopardy to come in much closer than he’s used to in order to eliminate anticipatory movement and heighten his close proximity reactivity. With this as a primary goal, we trained him in FMA – escrima/kali/arnis, penjak silat, muay thai, JKD, boxing, and kickboxing.

For Rob, we avoided kicking and used more hammer fists, elbows, and knees, while also drilling with sticks that would later enable him not only to improve his reaction time in closer pockets of engagement, but also to pick up anything and use it as a weapon. In contrast to this, the character of Selina Kyle/Catwoman felt like she kept everyone at a purposeful distance and was always beguiling in her personality. With that as an overall character focus, we complemented her physicality by training Zoe Kravitz in the styles of TKD, hapkido, capoeira, boxing, savate, and muay thai. Her style was focused more on speed, agility, footwork, feinting, and evasive movement because it requires her comfort level to be much more distance-oriented.

How was Matt Reeves as a collaborator?

Matt is fantastic to work with! He cares so much about each character, each moment, each frame. His attention to detail is amazing, and he always pushed towards creating a very real world where the audience can believe that Gotham and its characters actually exist. Every time we would review a stunt or action sequence, we would always discuss the emotional perspectives of each character to keep everything grounded for each individual character in each specific moment. It’s so rewarding working this way because we were always striving for the consistency of authentic character emotion while matching it with their respective character physicality. It was such a wonderfully challenging experience!

What’s it like working with Robert Pattinson?

Working with Rob was such a fun experience! He came in and fully committed to the approach. He was a sponge and wanted to learn everything from a place of developing and understanding his own character. He was very interested in “why” he would do things rather than simply learning choreographed moves without understanding the purpose.

To read the full interview click on the link above.